LETTERS FROM SAMOA	133
thing—and champagne. And yet people imagine, I believe, that we are ' roughing it' in far
corners of the earth	!
After dinner, as we were sitting in the verandah, Austin came forward and recited the following verses, with great dignity and self-possession, bowing to the Land Commissioner and to me at the proper places—
^c A while ago, when to your hands I came, I tripped on commas, stumbled at a name, Browsed like the sheep of some ungenerous breeder, On that lean pasture country, a First Reader.
Since when, by you presented, early and late, I sit and feast with all the good and great, And pass the flagon round, and praise my lot, With Burns and Byron, Addison and Scott.
Since when, a practised knight, fear laid aside, Through verbal Alps unfaltering I ride, With polysyllables prone a great practitioner, And need not blush before a Land Commissioner!
For which good gifts they chose me (choosing right), To grace with speech the ritual of the night, Deliver his rough verse, with easy mien, And make our bows before our Lady-Dean.'
At ' his rough verse' Austin pointed to Lou, so
you will guess who was responsible. Mr. H	
was delighted with it, and promptly recited a piece himself that he had learned when he was ten years old, and had never forgotten.
We wound up with a couple of rubbers of whist, and I felt that I had thoroughly enjoyed my birthday ; though, by the way, I was rather